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handyguypros1 · 3 years

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Best Lawn Sprinkler Systems HandyGuyPros

How do you water your grass? The method you use has an impact on how lush your lawn looks and how much you spend on water. It might be time for an upgrade to save you both time and moneyThe best lawn sprinkler systems take into account the size of your property and the climate where you live. They can also help you conserve water, which is a win-win for both you and the environment.

When you create a sprinkler system for your yard, you have several options to choose from. They include:

Drip irrigation with hoses

Stationary sprinklers

In-ground sprinklers

Oscillating sprinklers

Traveling sprinklers

While those are all different ways of watering your lawn, you can manage most of them with other equipment. For example, you might have a simple timer attached your hose. Or you might invest in a smart controller that connects to your home’s Wi-Fi.

Top Lawn Sprinkler Systems

Let’s take a look at a variety of the best lawn sprinkler systems to see which will work best for you.

Rain Bird 32ETI Easy to Install In-Ground Automatic Sprinkler System Kit

Rain Bird sells a complete in-ground automatic sprinkler system kit. Installing everything in a few hours without professional help is possible. And there’s no special plumbing neede-–just attach it to an outdoor faucet.

Rain Bird’s kit is suitable for lawns measuring 1000 to 3000 ft.² in size. It includes 125 feet of distribution tubing, plus fittings, nozzles, a special a screwdriver, and drain valves. There are six pop-up rotary sprinklers as well. And the whole system is controlled by an uncomplicated timer at the end of the hose that attaches to the faucet.

Rain Bird SST600IN Simple-To-Set Indoor Sprinkler/Irrigation System Timer/Controller, 6-Zone/Station

If you prefer a little more control over your watering than just a timer, try the SST600IN controller from Rain Bird. Instead of setting off all the sprinklers at the same time, this controller allows you to customize up to six zones in your yard. You can also adjust the watering time seasonally. Or you can suspend irrigation for up to 72 hours with the press of a button. That’s handy for when it’s just rained.

Orbit 57950 B-hyve Smart Indoor/Outdoor 12-Station WiFi Sprinkler System Controller, Works with Amazon Alexa

Orbit’s B-hyve smart sprinkler controller links to your home’s Wi-Fi network so that you can control it with mobile devices or your voice. It pulls weather reports from the Internet to help it determine how much water your plants will need. As a result, you can save up to 50% more water than you could with a simple timer.

Rachio WiFi Smart Lawn Sprinkler Controller, Works with Alexa, 2nd Generation

The second generation Rachio Smart Lawn Sprinkler Controller can control either 8 or 16 individual zones in your yard. This Wi-Fi-connected wonder can be managed by the Rachio app on your smartphone or controlled by your voice. Additionally, it checks online for the latest local weather forecasts to automatically adjust your watering schedule. Should you have a question or problem, the company’s customer support is available 24/7.

Rain Bird ST8I-WIFI Smart Indoor WiFi Sprinkler/Irrigation System Timer/Controller, Works with Amazon Alexa

Rain Bird’s ST8I-WIFI Smart irrigation system self-adjusts the watering schedule based on the local humidity and temperature. It also checks weather forecasts. With this information, it can suspend irrigation up to 14 days. It can also manage eight individual zones.

The Rain Bird app is available for both Apple and Android devices. It allows you to customize its schedule. Plus, the app can notify you about the status of your lawn.

RainMachine Touch HD-12, Wi-Fi Irrigation Controller, Compatible with Alexa

The RainMachine Touch HD-12 is easy to install yourself. Then once it’s up and running, this Wi-Fi-connected controller pulls weather data from the Internet several times a day. This information allows it to calculate the correct amount of water for your lawn.

You can manage the sprinkler system from the touchscreen, or install the app on your mobile device, or access your sprinklers through a web browser. In this way, you can check the status of your watering schedule from anywhere in the world.

Gideon Single-valve Hose Water Timer Irrigation Controller System

Not everyone wants an Internet-connected device to manage their irrigation schedule. That’s why the Gideon hose timer continues to be a popular item. All it needs is a couple of batteries to run.

The Gideon timer has a swivel coupling to attach between your faucet and hose. Then you can use the backlit LCD screen to set it to start watering and finish watering at precise times. It will run the water for a maximum of 240 minutes at a time, but it can also run multiple times each day.

Nelson 50180 Simple Soaker Flower Watering Sprinkler

The Nelson 50180 sprinkler is compatible with controllers like the Gideon reviewed above. It’s very convenient if you have a vegetable garden or flowerbeds. It comprises 50 feet of tubing and five spray nozzles, plus other needed accessories. All you’ll need to do is arrange the tubing where you want it, then bury it. Then connect it to a controller, and you’re ready to irrigate.

Orbit 58322 Traveling Sprinkler

Of all the sprinklers we reviewed, this one has to be the cutest. It’s a self-propelled traveling tractor that can spray anywhere from 15 to 50 feet in diameter. And it can irrigate up to 13,500 ft.² along 200 feet of 5/8-inch garden hose.

To use the Orbit traveling sprinkler, lay down your hose in a pattern that covers your lawn. Then attach the end of the hose to the sprinkler. Once you set the speed to low, neutral, or high, the tractor will begin to move along the hose slowly. As it rolls forward on this “track,” the whirling arms spray water. In summary, Orbit says that the sprinkler moves about 37 feet each hour and applies approximately a quarter inch of water.

GARDENA ZoomMaxx Sprinkler on Sled Base with Water Timer

The Gardena ZoomMaxx sprinkler is available in different versions. One type is mounted on a spike while another is on a weighted base. We chose the one with the sled base because it incorporates a water timer.

This oscillating sprinkler is appropriate for small yards up to 2300 ft.². Not only can you control how long it operates, but you can also adjust how far it sprays.

Lawn watering tips that save you money

Haven’t we all seen someone watering the sidewalk and the street more than their own grass? Or laughed at the homeowner whose sprinklers were running in the rain. Of course, those are wasteful practices.

But there are a few other things you might not know about watering the lawn. For example, avoid irrigating during the hot part of the day. Instead, set your sprinklers to run just before dawn. The benefit of this method is that it allows time for water to penetrate to the roots. But the blades and soil will still have time to dry during the day to avoid disease.

Next, the kind of grass and plants you have affect how much watering you need to do. Take the time to do research and discover what’s best for your landscape. Then, if there is a dry spell, avoid mowing the grass. When grass is cut, it loses moisture faster.

Finally, it probably isn’t necessary to water every day. Purchase a water sensor for your lawn to help you decide when it’s time to irrigate. Or you can simply stick a screwdriver a few inches into the ground to check moisture levels in the soil.

Conclusion

Some of the best lawn sprinkler systems available are those that monitor current conditions to save water. But even a straightforward timer can help you stay on top of irrigation duties. Once you get a system in place, it’s much easier to maintain a beautiful yard.

Source : https://handyguypros.com/best-lawn-sprinkler-systems/

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sheminecrafts · 5 years

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Ahead of third antitrust ruling, Google announces fresh tweaks to Android in Europe

Google is widely expected to be handed a third antitrust fine in Europe this week, with reports suggesting the European Commission’s decision in its long-running investigation of AdSense could land later today.

Right on cue the search giant has PRed another Android product tweak — which it bills as “supporting choice and competition in Europe”.

In the coming months Google says it will start prompting users of existing and new Android devices in Europe to ask which browser and search apps they would like to use.

This follows licensing changes for Android in Europe which Google announced last fall, following the Commission’s $5BN antitrust fine for anti-competitive behavior related to how it operates the dominant smartphone OS.

tl;dr competition regulation can shift policy and product.

Albeit, the devil will be in the detail of Google’s self-imposed ‘remedy’ for Android browser and search apps.

Which means how exactly the user is prompted will be key — given tech giants are well-versed in the manipulative arts of dark pattern design, enabling them to create ‘consent’ flows that deliver their desired outcome.

A ‘choice’ designed in such a way — based on wording, button/text size and color, timing of prompt and so on — to promote Google’s preferred browser and search app choice by subtly encouraging Android users to stick with its default apps may not actually end up being much of a ‘choice’.

According to Reuters the prompt will surface to Android users via the Play Store. (Though the version of Google’s blog post we read did not include that detail.)

Using the Play Store for the prompt would require an Android device to have Google’s app store pre-loaded — and licensing tweaks made to the OS in Europe last year were supposedly intended to enable OEMs to choose to unbundle Google apps from Android forks. Ergo making only the Play Store the route for enabling choice would be rather contradictory. (As well as spotlighting Google’s continued grip on Android.)

Add to that Google has the advantage of massive brand dominance here, thanks to its kingpin position in search, browsers and smartphone platforms.

So again the consumer decision is weighted in its favor. Or, to put it another way: ‘This is Google; it can afford to offer a ‘choice’.’

In its blog post getting out ahead of the Commission’s looming AdSense ruling, Google’s SVP of global affairs, Kent Walker, writes that the company has been “listening carefully to the feedback we’re getting” vis-a-vis competition.

Though the search giant is actually appealing both antitrust decisions. (The other being a $2.7BN fine it got slapped with two years ago for promoting its own shopping comparison service and demoting rivals’.)

“After the Commission’s July 2018 decision, we changed the licensing model for the Google apps we build for use on Android phones, creating new, separate licenses for Google Play, the Google Chrome browser, and for Google Search,” Walker continues. “In doing so, we maintained the freedom for phone makers to install any alternative app alongside a Google app.”

Other opinions are available on those changes too.

Such as French pro-privacy Google search rival Qwant, which last year told us how those licensing changes still make it essentially impossible for smartphone makers to profit off of devices that don’t bake in Google apps by default. (More recently Qwant’s founder condensed the situation to “it’s a joke“.)

Google still claimed to be blocking search rivals on Android, despite Europe’s antitrust action

Qwant and another European startup Jolla, which leads development of an Android alternative smartphone platform called Sailfish — and is also a competition complainant against Google in Europe — want regulators to step in and do more.

The Commission has said it is closely monitoring changes made by Google to determine whether or not the company has complied with its orders to stop anti-competitive behavior.

So the jury is still out on whether any of its tweaks sum to compliance. (Google says so but that’s as you’d expect — and certainly doesn’t mean the Commission will agree.)

In its Android decision last summer the Commission judged that Google’s practices harmed competition and “further innovation” in the wider mobile space, i.e. beyond Internet search — because it prevented other mobile browsers from competing effectively with its pre-installed Chrome browser.

So browser choice is a key component here. And ‘effective competition’ is the bar Google’s homebrew ‘remedies’ will have to meet.

Still, the company will be hoping its latest Android tweaks steer off further Commission antitrust action. Or at least generate more fuzz and fuel for its long-game legal appeal.

Current EU competition commissioner, Margrethe Vestager, has flagged for years that the division is also fielding complaints about other Google products, including travel search, image search and maps. Which suggests Google could face fresh antitrust investigations in future, even as the last of the first batch is about to wrap up.

The FT reports that Android users in the European economic area last week started seeing links to rival websites appearing above Google’s answer box for searches for products, jobs or businesses — with the rival links appearing above paid results links to Google’s own services.

The newspaper points out that tweak is similar to a change promoted by Google in 2013, when it was trying to resolve EU antitrust concerns under the prior commissioner, Joaquín Almunia.

However rivals at the time complained the tweak was insufficient. The Commission subsequently agreed — and under Vestager’s tenure went on to hit Google with antitrust fines.

Walker doesn’t mention these any of additional antitrust complaints swirling around Google’s business in Europe, choosing to focus on highlighting changes it’s made in response to the two extant Commission antitrust rulings.

“After the Commission’s July 2018 decision, we changed the licensing model for the Google apps we build for use on Android phones, creating new, separate licenses for Google Play, the Google Chrome browser, and for Google Search. In doing so, we maintained the freedom for phone makers to install any alternative app alongside a Google app,” he writes.

Nor does he make mention of a recent change Google quietly made to the lists of default search engine choices in its Chrome browser — which expanded the “choice” he claims the company offers by surfacing more rivals. (The biggest beneficiary of that tweak is privacy search rival DuckDuckGo, which suddenly got added to the Chrome search engine lists in around 60 markets. Qwant also got added as a default choice in France.)

Talking about Android specifically Walker instead takes a subtle indirect swipe at iOS maker Apple — which now finds itself the target of competition complaints in Europe, via music streaming rival Spotify, and is potentially facing a Commission probe of its own (albeit, iOS’ marketshare in Europe is tiny vs Android). So top deflecting Google.

“On Android phones, you’ve always been able to install any search engine or browser you want, irrespective of what came pre-installed on the phone when you bought it. In fact, a typical Android phone user will usually install around 50 additional apps on their phone,” Walker writes, drawing attention to the fact that Apple does not offer iOS users as much of a literal choice as Google does.

“Now we’ll also do more to ensure that Android phone owners know about the wide choice of browsers and search engines available to download to their phones,” he adds, saying: “This will involve asking users of existing and new Android devices in Europe which browser and search apps they would like to use.”

We’ve reached out to Commission for comment, and to Google with questions about the design of its incoming browser and search app prompts for Android users in Europe and will update this report with any response.

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readersforum · 5 years

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Ahead of third antitrust ruling, Google announces fresh tweaks to Android in Europe

New Post has been published on http://www.readersforum.tk/ahead-of-third-antitrust-ruling-google-announces-fresh-tweaks-to-android-in-europe-2/